Roll on Columbia

Last week, we headed north and east and saw many sights along the Columbia River.

Our first stop was the Maryhill Museum, just across the river from Oregon.  It's collection is sort of an eclectic assortment of European culture and western art.  Always interesting to see the Rodin sculptures.

Maryhill Museum

Rodin's Hand of God (in plaster)

We also stopped at a winery perched above the Columbia River near Quincy, the White Heron Cellars.

On Friday, we went fishing in Banks Lake with a guide.  While technically not on the Columbia River, water is/was piped from the Grand Coulee dam to form Banks Lake and a series of lower lakes for both irrigation and recreation.

Steamboat Rock

Sheer basalt cliffs

Our catch

Western grebes were starting to display courtship behavior

We also saw eagles, swallows, and swifts, but only managed to photograph the grebes

And we spent several days in Grand Coulee/Coulee Dam.  The dam was built across the Columbia River at a point where it turned from westbound to northbound.  It was completed in 1942 and created Lake Roosevelt.

A view of the dam from CCC-built Douglas Park

A tribute to Wood Guthrie at the Visitor's Center

Walk in the woods

As we have recently most often been away from home during May, it was a treat to go walking in the woods to view the wild rhodies blooming under the Douglas fir, spruce and cedar trees, near our lakes.  Only a few petals have fallen on the trail, but there was plenty of pink to enjoy.  Who knew that pink and green went together so well?

Enjoy whatever is blooming right now.

Happy Mother's Day weekend.

Beach birds

'Tis the season for migrations north, so I went looking for sandpipers on the beach yesterday.  I found plenty.

Most were sanderlings, but a few dunlins were in mixed species flocks.

Sanderlings

Dunlin with the black belly and longer bill (in center)

And whimbrels are traveling through right now as well.

Brown pelicans put on a diving performance as they were fishing just past the mouth of the bay.  Unfortunately, the format of my video renders it unlinkable.  So, here are some pelicans resting on the beach.

Enjoy your local birds!

Another day another encounter with sandpipers.

Today, semi-palmated plovers were abundantly mixed in with the sanderlings and dunlins.

Here's a clearer view of a dunlin.

The Yaquina inlet

Late winter/early spring is the season for herring to spawn in Yaquina Bay.

Today, armed with new cameras, we went out along the south jetty to photograph the seabirds who came to feast on herring eggs.

Thousands of birds were between the jetties: a couple of species of gulls, scoters, some loons, and our favorite -- harlequin ducks.

(Panasonic Lumix)

(Panasonic)

(Sony RX100)

(Sony)

Video taken on Panasonic, by Bori.

Our menagerie

On our lanai and just beyond, we have been visited by a rather broad selection of birds and the occasional mongoose.  Part of this is because Bori has been feeding them, first bits of crackers, then peanuts.  They have not become dependent on these little handouts, in fact they have largely abandoned his offerings.  Today he realized that a neighbor is feeding them something that they like better.  

Here are a couple of the visitors.

The chicken, who has come to our screen door looking for
Bori, and perched on several chairs on the lanai.

Mynah birds

Saffron finches

We leave on Thursday.  Aloha!

Shark art

We haven't seen any sharks or been told to get out of the water due to their presence, but sharks images abound.  And I just heard on the radio that sharks are happily feasting on a dead sperm whale that currents are moving towards the island, so they aren't too far away.

Here are a couple sharks that I've encountered.

Mailbox shark

Ritzy shark 

This is our car shark that travels with us

Captain Cook Monument from underwater

This morning, we took a small-boat, snorkel excursion to Captain Cook Monument.  It was a lot of fun, and we saw lots of nice fish, and had close-to-the-boat encounters with spinner dolphins, some of which were spinning, and others of which were wake surfing.

This monument marks the spot where Captain Cook (the great British explorer and cartographer) was killed by Hawaiians after a series of unfortunate events in the late 18th century.

Here are some of the fish that we swam with.

Yellow tang (lau'ipala)

Threadfin butterflyfish (kikakapu)

Racoon butterflyfish (also kikakapu)

White-spotted surgeonfish ('api) being cleaned by
Hawaiian cleaner wrasse

Yellowmargin moray eel (puhi paka)

Multiband butterflyfish (also kikakapu)

These will be the last underwater photos of the season.  I flooded my camera when rinsing the underwater housing in fresh water.  But the camera was pretty old, and I will be buying a new one in the near future.

Looking at brightly-colored, intricately-patterned reef fish is good training for viewing abstract art in France in the spring.

Aloha for another day.